Stay architecturally enlightened!

Peter Zumthor's $450,000,000 'Black Flower' for LACMA

"Bracingly forward-looking, Zumthor's design for LACMA would give the city a much-needed jolt of architectural energy."
— Los Angeles Times

Zumthor's design, which obliterates the original campus of LACMA, would cost an estimated $450M to construct, with another $200M in soft and operating costs built in.

A few questions abound: is this really any different (in overall approach) than OMA's ill-fated masterplan from roughly 10 years ago? Will this truly solve LACMA's core collections questions? And would the money raised be much better allocated towards improving those, the existing facilities and creating a long term operations fund to help stabilize the institution?

Related Archinect Profiles

11 Comments

"This overhead view, powerfully simple and graphic, suggests a black droplet on the Miracle Mile landscape. Given that dark, inkblot form, it is also hard not to think of the project as a kind of Rorschach test for LACMA donors and the museum's board — a way to test their enthusiasm for costly but stirringly ambitious new architecture."

Who are they kidding? LACMA donors are not idiots. I suggest that the 'dark, inkblot form' will be seen as more of a 'black hole' they will keep shoveling money into.

i'll call b.s. on some of those numbers in that link donna. my partner worked on the high museum with renzo. that is NOT the actual cost. it may (MAY) include every single project cost available - land, portions of the project for the atlanta college of art, refurbishing the existing high building; refurbishing the existing arts complex on the campus and the maintenance endowment, etc and then dividing that # by just the area of the museum itself. the actual construction budget of the high proper was less than half that.

Donna - The construction cost of the Parrish was over $700 / sq.ft. for essentially warehouse space without any redeeming features such as solar, landscaping, etc., which apparently were not part of the program.

It's only a few miles from me but I' so disgusted by it that I have absolutely no desire to visit.

But..but…Miles, that concrete bench detail….how can you not want to stroke then place your bum on that perfect moment of casting?!? (I'm not being facetious - I feel a thrill every time I look at that detail and look forward to seeing it someday.)

There was a thread here recently about the cost/sf of buildings, it might have even been about the Parrish. When I started doing institutional work 18 years ago $150/sf was considered high. I get the feeling these days most work is above $300/sf. Not strip malls, maybe, but public schools (Steven?), libraries, etc. all seem to be high. Not that I wouldn't expect that construction costs would be higher after 18 years, I just think the starchitect/shiny-icon-with-a-hole-in-it boom led to donors of significant projects not batting an eye at $750/sf.

Greg, the first commenter on that Architect Mag article strips away some of how he thinks they miscalculated. His method finds costs in the $800/sf range typical. I have no idea which set is closer to truth. Posted the link to continue the conversation.

donna (and miles) - 700/sf isn't that unheard of for a high end museum/cultural building (nevermind the 'starchitect' label - i've seen less competently designed churches come in at that number). the high expansion was a kind of 'budget' renzo project. there were certainly fancier early concepts that were whittled away over time.

but $2800/sf for anything of size? um...i'm just not quite buying it (figuratively or literally).

having said all that, archdaily has some really good photos of the models for the zumthor project. and it's huge. really, really huge - 30'+ high galleries seem like the norm over 3 levels. so, even though it's "x" thousands of square feet, it's really closer to 2 or 2.5"x" given the volume ratios. if it's 1200/sf, then i'd kind of believe it, given the likely level of execution demanded and raw volumetric size.

OK, seeing how it embraces the Goff building actually makes me feel more optimistic about this building. I mean, I love All Things Zumthor, and I love a bold new approach to museum experiences in general, I'm just saddened at destroying so much existing fabric that is by many accounts charming and still useful.